SPC men, women start with McLennan

Published: Tuesday, March 02, 2010

Both South Plains College basketball teams get McLennan Community College in the first round of this week's NJCAA Region V tournament at the Rip Griffin Center.

The tournament begins with four first-round men's games Thursday, followed by four women's first-round games Friday. In each bracket are four teams from the Western Junior College Athletic Conference and four from the North Texas Junior College Athletic Conference.

The South Plains men (18-10), seeded fourth out of the WJCAC, take on NJTJAC champion McLennan (26-4) at 5 p.m. Thursday. The Highlanders are ranked No. 24 in the NJCAA Top 25.

The South Plains women (18-9) and McLennan (19-11) square off at 2 p.m. Friday in a 2-seed, 3-seed game.

Both championship games are Sunday with only the Region V champions advancing. The NJCAA national tournaments are March 16-20, the women in Salina, Kan., and the men in Hutchinson, Kan.

Midland College (28-2) and Howard College (26-2) from Big Spring are ranked No. 1 and 2 in the nation among NJCAA men's teams, though they finished in the opposite order in conference play, making Howard the WJCAC's top seed and Midland the league's No. 2 seed.

In the women's bracket, No. 4 Midland (27-3) is the only team ranked in the NJCAA Top 25.

at the Rip Griffin Center

Seedings, records in parentheses

Note: "W'' denotes teams from the Western Junior College Athletic Conference. "N" denotes teams from the North Texas Junior College Athletic Conference.

MEN

Thursday's First-Round Games

Odessa College (W3) (23-7) vs. Collin County Community College (N2) (23-6), noon